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General Nick Houghton is a former United Kingdom Chief of Defence Staff - the professional head of the UK’s Armed Forces. He stood down in July 2016 and is now a constable of The Tower of London and a Cross-Bench Peer in the House of Lords.

Nick Houghtonjoined the Army in 1973 straight from school aged 18. He was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Green Howards, a Yorkshire Infantry Regiment. In his early twenties, he undertook an in-Service degree in Modern History at St Peter’sCollege, Oxford.

In a 43-year military career he served seven times in Northern Ireland earning operational awards as both a Commanding Officer and a Brigade Commander in Belfast. He was the Deputy Commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq in 2005-6 for which he was awarded the US Legion of Merit. He was the Chief of Joint Operations from April 2006 to May 2009, in charge of all overseas operations of UK Forces, including the final extraction from Iraq. He was both Vice Chief and then Chief offense Staff over the period 2009-2016 during the time of two StrategicDefence Reviews and the end of combat operations in Afghanistan.

He was the ColonelCommandant of the Intelligence Corps and the founding Colonel of the YorkshireRegiment. On leaving the Army Nick Houghton established his own consultancy company which specializes in giving strategic advice to multinational corporates. He also advises a number of technology start-ups. More widely he is a Trustee of the Royal United Services Institute, Historic Royal Palaces, RoyalArmouries, and The HM Tower of London Chapels Royal Foundation. He is an honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford.